News Nuggets 1343

DAYLEE PICTURE:  A chilly sunrise in the Pohorje hills of Slovenia.  From Smithsonian Magazine.

UP-FRONT TECH NUGGET!!
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Reveals Drone Delivery System: Unmanned delivery aircraft could be ready within five years from Time Magazine

Are Europeans Giving Up on Europe? (Moises Naim) from the Atlantic
"In fact, the “the rest of the world” increasingly seems to be a mere blip on the radar of many Spaniards and Italians. And, sadly, “the rest” now even includes Europe."

Science Journal Retracts French Study on GM Foods from the Toronto Star  
"A controversial French study purportedly linking genetically modified foods to tumours and organ failure in rats — research widely hailed by anti-GM activists and fiercely denounced by scientists — has been retracted."

Administration Confident on Deadline for HealthCare.gov from the Washington Post
"Officials are preparing to say Sunday that they have met their deadline for improving the Web site, in part by expanding its capacity so that it can handle 50,000 users at once. But other goals remain."

The White House says Obamacare will be Working by Sunday. Here’s what that Means (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"... perhaps young people wouldn't have signed up till the last-minute anyway — that's what happened in Massachusetts, and that's also what happened with not-so-young people in Medicare Part D — and so the site is fine so long as it's working reasonably well reasonably soon."

Obamacare Still Alive (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"Where does Obamacare stand now? A few things have become clear: ... these are not fundamentally questions about the life or death of Obamacare. They’re about how much political pain Democrats in Congress must endure. We’re not fighting over health-care policy. We’re fighting about the midterm elections."

Obamacare is Here to Stay (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"... the real gauge of HealthCare.gov’s improvement was Republicans’ response — or lack thereof. When the House returned from Thanksgiving recess on Monday afternoon, the GOP speakers on the floor essentially ignored the Web site, instead returning to their earlier denunciations of Obamacare overall and President Obama in general."

David Plouffe: Obama’s Approval Ratings ‘Will Recover’ from Time Magazine 
"Former White House advisor says "people trust this president."
Now -- granted Plouffe is very much a creature of the Obama administration.  Having said that, however, it has always been my experience of him that he is a pretty straight-shooting commentator AND he is a political polling master of the highest order!  I will be curious to see if he is correct this time.

They Just Don't Care if Healthcare.Gov Works or Not (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast
"Healthcare.gov is well on its way to full stability, but Republicans refuse to acknowledge it. No matter the facts, the GOP is committed to the message that Obamacare has failed."

U.S. Justices Decline to Hear Another Obamacare Challenge from Reuters 
"The court rejected a petition filed by Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia, which had raised various objections to the law, including to the key provision that requires individuals to obtain health insurance. The justices upheld the constitutionality of a the individual mandate in a 5-4 ruling in June 2012."

The Pope and the Right (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"Pope Francis’s latest headline-making exhortation has conservative Catholics on the defensive."

Life on $7.25 an Hour (Alan Feuer) from the New York Times
"Like most fast-food workers in New York, Eduardo Shoy is struggling to stitch together a living on minimum wage. Last weekend, he slept for 13 hours and worked for 44."

The Real Humanities Crisis (Gary Gutting) from the New York Times
"For those with humanistic and artistic life interests, our economic system has almost nothing to offer."

Eye on 2016, Clintons Rebuild Bond With Blacks from the New York Times  
"Bill and Hillary Clinton have sought to soothe their relationship with African-Americans, the group that was most scarred during her first bid for the presidency."

PARTISAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
This Conservative History Book Will Make You Stupider (David Weigel) from Slate
"It's one of those tomes that may end up on thousands of conservatives' bookshelves while remaining utterly unknown to liberals. That's a shame, because it's so often wrong that it probably shouldn't wind up anywhere."

WORLD WAR I BOOKS NUGGET!!
‘Catastrophe 1914’ by Max Hastings and ‘The War That Ended Peace’ by Margaret MacMillan (Gerard DeGroot) from the Washington Post
"The deluge of books that will mark the war’s centenary is proof of this obsession. A market for these books exists because the war bewilders, frustrates and angers those who seek understanding. Yet as new books by Margaret MacMillan and Max Hastings reveal, the war’s most profound conundrums continue to evade solution."